Fighting for every oz

Hiya,

At what point in your WL journey did it become more difficult to lose weight? I am not complaining about my wl but I feel like the last 5-6 lbs have been a struggle and I am nowhere near goal. I feel like I am back to pre surgery situation where I would work hard, exercise and stick to my diet to see a bare .5 lb loss at the end of the week.

• I exercise 7 days a week
• my protein intake is 60-80 gr a day
• my liquid intake is 64-80 oz
• the calories are always below 600, unless something special is going on, but even then it?s not above 800 and it?s not an every day event, it?s mostly once every 10-12 days.
• My carbs are mostly vegetables (very few fruits during the week, if any it?s berries with my yogurt).

What am I doing wrong?

I'm no medical expert, but I can tell you what my nutritionist told me. If you're working out 7 days a week and only eating 500-600 calories, you're not getting enough calories. She told me to exercise less or eat more. I thought she was crazy, but she was right. I added 150 calories and started rapidly losing weight again. ( I added extra protein and a little fat. Nuts, nut butter, etc.. )

Good luck, hang in there. :)

This is bad advice. Most WLS patients will NOT run into a situation of "too few calories" and we should NOT eat back our exercise calories. You will not go into starvation mode, wreck your metabolism, or get into other trouble.

It's entirely possible that the point when you added extra calories also just happened to coincide with the end of a stall. Eating more does NOT encourage weight loss.

Stalls are normal, it could just be that you've hit a stall and your body is taking time to catch up.

I too would likely up my protein a little to help with muscle repair after workouts and increase your water. You say you workout seven days a week, how strenuous? Are you strength training or just doing cardio?

Lots of things could be at play here. Have you taken your measurements?

I wouldn't call them strenuous. I do 2 days of strength training and 5 days of cardio. I wear a heart monitor and depending on what I'm doing it's between 300-500 cals burn.

I honestly worried less about my calorie count and carb count as a total for the day- I would look at individual items and make sure they were low calorie and low carb....yes my calories were sub 1000 during WL, but not exactly the same everyday.

What I did count for the day was my protein and fluids. I worked myself up to 100g of protein and at least 100 Oz fluids- all sources. I did include a protein drink either ready made or that I made everyday. It would have 25-30g protein, no more than 5-6g sugar, and no more than about 200 calories.

Exercise is great, helps you feel good and maintain your losses.... but there have been many studies that have shown it does very little to aid weight loss.

Edit to add: when on a plateau I always tried to change up my food choices- we get in a rut. As well as add fat- we need that too.

I do drink the protein drinks (premier protein or bariatric advantage meal replacement). Thanks for all the pointers.

One thing that I would do is drastically increase your fluid intake. I didn't get out of a stall until I was drinking at least 100 oz of fluid a day. That really helped me.

Oh boy...will try! Thanks!

After the rapid initial loss, most people average about a pound per week, slow and steady, until they reach goal. The further out you are, the slower it goes. This is because a smaller body has a lower caloric need, so your caloric deficit gets smaller as you lose weight.

Yes, it can be frustrating, but this is NOT similar to a pre-surgery situation. You are losing weight and KEEPING it off! That's the important part.